EUROPEAN Union (EU) bureaucrats are planning for member states to spend £4billion (€5bn) on a "game-changer" joint defence project - but are still denying they are forming an EU Army.

The monster budget, thought to be in response to Donald Trump's election win, would strip national governments of their defence spending, with the European Defence Fund paying for cyber security, warships, drone technology and EU space programmes for defence.

The proposal revealed today by the European Commission would increase defence research resources by £21million (€25m) next year, climbing to £77m (€90m) a year by 2020, with a total group input by all countries of £4bn (€5bn) each year.

Currently, member states pay for 80 per cent of all defence procurement on a "purely national basis", the Commission estimates.

However, Mr Katainen was quick to say "this project has nothing to do with the US elections".

He added: "Our member states cannot afford to protect their citizens without deeper and better co-operation in defence.

"No single country can afford to invest in security and defence structures without cutting in other areas.

"We are not here to propose to member states to use more money for defence but proposing to use existing resources to get better security.

Reuters

Jyrki Katainen said the plan was not for an EU Army

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The fund would be used for defence equipment such as drones

"EU member states suffer from inefficiency due to duplications - they are all investing in the same things separately.

"This way they can join up to have, say, 20 drones between a few members, instead of one or two drones each.

"If all member states are on-board, they would provide €5bn, based on analysis, for joint investments on equipment."

Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of the Commission, said the initiative is needed because EU member states are spending too much on defence compared to output which is "much less than for every single dollar spent in the US on defence".